ST. THOMAS or St. Maarten diving?

[scubabrandon]

Ok here is the deal. I am going on a cruise and I will be in St. Thomas for 1 day and St. Maarten for 1 day. I can only dive 1 day. Any thoughts or ideas on which island to dive from or any dive shops to use or better yet any dive locations you know of????

THANKS!

 

[hdcline]

I was in these Islands back in April, I dove St Thomas and went with Coki Beach Dive Club. They will pick you up at the pier and furnish all your equipment. They offer a shore dive for $40.00 for the first dive and the second dive is $20.00. We dove both dives to 80 ft with lots of coral and sea life. If I was going back this is who I would go with. They are the same dive operator that Princess uses so if you are going book the dive yourself and stay away from booking through the cruiseline. If you would want their website link pm me and I will furnish you with the link.

 

[RICHinNC]

Coki Beach is just a 10 minute walk from Chris Sawyer dive ops....so you might be able to get a boat dive in and a shore dive as well. Chris has a web site so do a google. He runs a good ops.
I would recommend emailing him and seeing what he could set up for you.......to maximize your time on shore.


good luck
rich

 

[BurBunny]

No question in my mind, St. Thomas is the better option for one day of diving.

As for dive ops, I highly recommend Chris Sawyer. Coki Beach is good for shore diving, but I feel the boat diving is better. I also use St. Thomas Diving Club for some different locations, and Blue Island Divers work well with cruise ship logistics and will pick you up at the pier.

 

[scubachris]

Coki Beach is just a 10 minute walk from Chris Sawyer dive ops.

The Renaissance (Grand Palace), the hotel near Coki Beach is closed so Chris Sawyer doesn't operate out of there. All of their boats leave from their main office in Red Hook, American Yacht Harbor.

I've never dove St. Maaten but when I worked on St. Thomas, cruise ship passengers who'd been to St. Maarten diving already said they prefered St. Thomas. But can't say for myself.

chris

 

[wjbrandt]

I currently work for Chris Sawyer and would invite you to come on down and check us out. Check our web site sawyerdive.vi
]

 

[mack50md]

I was on Carnival's Glory last May. My brother-in-law and I opted to take the ship's excursions because the port times were so short. We did both St. Thomas and St. Maarten excursions.

Coki Beach Club was short and rushed. We wasted a lot of time at the dive shop outfitting snorkelers. The cattle trucks they put us on were packed. Operatioin was not well organized. This was supposed to be a scooter dive and they cancelled it the last minute. Hard pressed to find a full cylinder when we got there. Viz was marginal. We didn't go much beyond the underwater observation tower. Reef was sparce and sealife was sparse in the area we dived.

St. Maarten was a 2 tank boat dive with Dive Safaris. Excellent outfitter. Very professional. Very courteous to customers. Water taxi from the pier to the shop. Dive boat was well outfitted. We had about 12 divers on board and 3 DMs. Reefs were fantastic. Great diving.

 

[scubabrandon]

I currently work for Chris Sawyer and would invite you to come on down and check us out. Check our web site sawyerdive.vi
]

I notice that you have dives that leave at 9am and back by 1pm. What are those 2 dive sites?

 

[CSD1129]

I love st.maarten. But I wouldn't spend a day underwater there (if only there for one day)

ST.Thomas has some great diving. Chris sawyer is a great op. I've been diving in both destinations and found St.Thomas to be way better.

ST.Maarten is a great island to explore. Lots of diversity with the French and Dutch side. We were on Royal Caribbean in early april and went to both ports. (I've also been to sxm quite a few times...and returning!).


not to try and get rid of this thread, but travel talk online has some message boards dedicated to st.maarten and st.thomas. They might help you with deciding.

Have a great time!

 

[scubachris]

I notice that you have dives that leave at 9am and back by 1pm. What are those 2 dive sites?

My wife and I both use to be instructors at Chris Sawyer (temporarily back on the mainland!), and the sites will vary depending on a couple of things.

Who's on the boat: what have the dove, what requests do they have, etc. Also weather, Chris Sawyer has a great advantage in that they can dive the Northside, East Side or South side of St. Thomas. Not to mention around the nearby Cay's (Thatch, Grass, Mingo, Lavongo and Congo).

Chris